Seyfarth Synopsis: Of the five major class action developments in 2018, the decline in class action settlement numbers may have been most the striking shift. In fact, when compared to the 2017 numbers, the value of the top class action settlements in 2018 decreased by over $1 billion. In today’s blog, our readers can see and hear Workplace Class Action Report (“WCAR”) author Jerry Maatman outline what he called “a very significant marker of class action litigation in 2018.” Click the link below to watch and hear Jerry’s presentation from Seyfarth Shaw’s “Top Trends In Workplace Class Action Litigation” book launch event!

Seyfarth Synopsis: As measured by the top ten largest case resolutions in various workplace class action categories, overall settlement numbers decreased significantly in 2018 as compared to 2017. After settlement numbers were at an all-time high in 2017, those numbers fell dramatically over the past year. In sum, the ability of the plaintiffs’ bar to monetize their class action filings hit a significant wall.

This trend harkened back to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Wal-Mart, Inc. v. Dukes in 2011. By tightening Rule 23 standards and raising the bar for class certification, Wal-Mart made it more difficult for plaintiffs to certify class actions, and to convert their class action filings into substantial settlements. These barriers became more formidable in 2018 with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Epic Systems v. Lewis, which upheld the validity of class action waivers in mandatory workplace arbitration agreements.

The “Wal-Mart/Epic Systems” phenomenon is still being played out, as well as manifesting itself in settlement dynamics. It is expected that the force of this barrier will be felt more profoundly in 2019.

Considering all types of workplace class actions, settlement numbers in 2018 totaled $1.32 billion, which decreased significantly from 2017 when such settlements totaled $2.72 billion and in 2016 when such settlements totaled $1.75 billion.

The following graphic shows this trend:

In terms of the story behind the numbers, the breakouts by types of workplace class action settlements are instructive.

In 2018, there was a significant downward trend for the value of settlement of ERISA and wage & hour class action settlements, as well as for government enforcement lawsuits. In addition, there were significant decreases across-the-board for resolutions of class actions involving employment discrimination claims and statutory workplace laws. By any measure, class action recoveries were down.

This phenomenon is shown by the following chart for 2018 settlement numbers:

The top ten settlements in the private plaintiff statutory class action category (e.g., cases brought for breach of contract for employee benefits, and workplace anti-trust laws and statutes such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act or the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) totaled $411.15 million, which represented a slight decrease from $487.28 million in 2017 (but an increase from $114.7 million in 2016.)

The following chart tracks these figures:

The pattern for employment discrimination class action settlements likewise followed a slight downward trend in 2018. The top ten settlements totaled $216.09 million as compared to $293.5 million in 2017. The comparison of the settlement figures with previous settlement activity over the last decade is illustrated in the following chart:

In 2018, the value of the top ten largest employment discrimination class action settlements of $216.09 million was the fourth lowest figure since 2010, and largely aligned with the trend that started in 2011 (after Wal-Mart was decided) that showed decreases in settlement amounts over three years of that four-year period.

This trend also held for wage & hour class action settlements. In 2018, the value of the top ten wage & hour settlements was $253.18 million. This was a significant decrease from 2017, when the value of the top ten settlements spiked at $574.49 million, which was the second highest annual total in wage & hour class actions ever. When coupled together, the two-year period of 2016 and 2017 saw over $1.2 billion in the top wage & hour settlements. Further, this is most telling in examining the last four years, for 2016 represented almost a quadrupling (after two years of declining numbers in 2013 and 2014) in the value of the top wage & hour settlements as compared to 2014. Given the ruling in Epic Systems this past year, settlement numbers are apt to remain on a downward trajectory in 2019.

This trend is illustrated by the following chart:

Relatedly, the top ten settlements in government enforcement litigation experienced a downward arc, as they decreased nearly four-fold to $126.7 million. This compared to the figure of $485.2 million in 2017. That being said, these numbers were slightly above the three year trend from 2014 to 2016 when governmental enforcement litigation settlements trended under $100 million for three years running. This trend is illustrated by the following chart of settlements from 2010 to 2018:

ERISA class action settlements fell precipitously in 2018. The top ten settlements fell nearly three-fold to $313.4 million, which were down from $927 million in 2017 and $807.4 million in 2016. Further, given that ERISA class action settlements for the two-year period of 2016 and 2018 were a combined $1.73 billion, the figure for 2018 represents a clear reversal for the plaintiffs’ bar. This trend is illustrated by the following chart of settlements from 2010 to 2018:

Implications For Employers:

Settlement trends in workplace class action litigation are impacted by many factors. In the coming year, settlement activity is apt to be influenced by developing case law interpreting U.S. Supreme Court rulings such as Epic Systems, the Trump Administration’s labor and employment enforcement policies, case filing trends of the plaintiffs’ class action bar, and class certification rulings.

Click here to access the microsite featuring all the Report highlights. You can read about the five major trends of the past year, order your copy of the eBook, and download Chapters 1 and 2 on the 2019 Executive Summary and key class action settlements.

The Report was featured today in an exclusive article in MarketWatch. Click here to read the coverage!

The Report is the sole compendium in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to workplace class action litigation, and has become the “go to” research and resource guide for businesses and their corporate counsel facing complex litigation. We were again honored this year with a review of our Report by Employment Practices Liability Consultant Magazine (“EPLiC”). Here is what EPLiC said: “The Report is a must-have resource for legal research and in-depth analysis of employment-related class action litigation. Anyone who practices in this area, whether as a corporate counsel, a private attorney, a business execu­tive, a risk manager, an underwriter, a consul­tant, or a broker, cannot afford to be without it. Importantly, the Report is the only publica­tion of its kind in the United States. It is the sole compendium that analyzes workplace class actions from ‘A to Z.’” Furthermore, EPLiC recognized our Report as the “state-of-the-art word” on workplace class action litigation.

The 2019 Report analyzes rulings from all state and federal courts – including private plaintiff class actions and collective actions, and government enforcement actions – in the substantive areas of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. It also features chapters on EEOC pattern or practice rulings, state law class certification decisions, and non-workplace class action rulings that impact employers. The Report also analyzes the leading class action settlements for 2018 for employment discrimination, wage & hour, ERISA class actions, and statutory workplace laws, as well as settlements of government enforcement actions, both with respect to monetary values and injunctive relief provisions.

We hope our loyal blog readers will enjoy it!

Executive Summary

The prosecution of workplace class action litigation by the plaintiffs’ bar has continued to escalate over the past decade. Class actions often pose unique “bet-the-company” risks for employers. As has become readily apparent in the #MeToo era, an adverse judgment in a class action has the potential to bankrupt a business and adverse publicity can eviscerate its market share. Likewise, the on-going defense of a class action can drain corporate resources long before the case even reaches a decision point. Companies that do business in multiple states are also susceptible to “copy-cat” class actions, whereby plaintiffs’ lawyers create a domino effect of litigation filings that challenge corporate policies and practices in numerous jurisdictions at the same time. Hence, workplace class actions can impair a corporation’s business operations, jeopardize or cut short the careers of senior management, and cost millions of dollars to defend. For these reasons, workplace class actions remain at the top of the list of challenges that keep business leaders up late at night with worries about compliance and litigation. Skilled plaintiffs’ class action lawyers and governmental enforcement litigators are not making this challenge any easier for companies. They are continuing to develop new theories and approaches to the successful prosecution of complex employment litigation and government-backed lawsuits.

New rulings by federal and state courts have added to this patchwork quilt of compliance problems and risk management issues. In turn, the events of the past year in the workplace class action world demonstrate that the array of litigation issues facing businesses are continuing to accelerate at a rapid pace while also undergoing significant change. Notwithstanding the transition to new leadership in the White House with the Trump Administration, governmental enforcement litigation pursued by the U.S. Equal Employment Commission (“EEOC”) and other federal agencies continued to manifest an aggressive agenda, with regulatory oversight of workplace issues continuing as a high priority. Conversely, litigation issues stemming from the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) reflected a slight pull-back from previous efforts to push a pronounced pro-worker/anti-business agenda. The combination of these factors are challenging businesses to integrate their litigation and risk mitigation strategies to navigate these exposures. These challenges are especially acute for businesses in the context of complex workplace litigation. Adding to this mosaic of challenges in 2019 is the continuing evolution in federal policies emanating from the Trump White House, the recent appointments of new Supreme Court Justices, and mid-term elections placing the Senate in control of Republicans and the House in control of Democrats. Furthermore, while changes to government priorities started on the previous Inauguration Day and are on-going, others are being carried out by new leadership at the agency level who were appointed over this past year. As expected, many changes represent stark reversals in policy that are sure to have a cascading impact on private class action litigation.

While predictions about the future of workplace class action litigation may cover a wide array of potential outcomes, the one sure bet is that change is inevitable and corporate America will continue to face new litigation challenges.

Key Trends Of 2018

An overview of workplace class action litigation developments in 2018 reveals five key trends. First, class action litigation has been shaped and influenced to a large degree by recent rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court. Over the past several years, the U.S. Supreme Court has accepted more cases for review than in previous years – and as a result, has issued more rulings – that have impacted the prosecution and defense of class actions and government enforcement litigation. The past year continued that trend, with several key decisions on complex employment litigation and class action issues that were arguably more pro-business than decisions in past terms. Among those rulings, Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, 138 S. Ct. 1612 (2018) – which upheld the legality of class action waivers in mandatory arbitration agreements – is a transformative decision that is one of the most important workplace class action rulings in the last two decades. It is already having a profound impact on the prosecution and defense of workplace class action litigation, and in the long run, EpicSystems may well shift class action litigation dynamics in critical ways. Coupled with the appointments of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in 2018, litigation may well be reshaped in ways that change the playbook for prosecuting and defending class actions.

Second, the plaintiffs’ bar was successful in prosecuting class certification motions at the highest rates ever as compared to previous years in the areas of ERISA and wage & hour litigation, while suffering significant defeats in employment discrimination litigation. While evolving case law precedents and new defense approaches resulted in good outcomes for employers in opposing class certification requests, federal and state courts issued many favorable class certification rulings for the plaintiffs’ bar in 2018. Plaintiffs’ lawyers continued to craft refined class certification theories to counter the more stringent Rule 23 certification requirements established in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 564 U.S. 338 (2011). As a result, in the areas of wage & hour and ERISA class actions, the plaintiffs’ bar scored exceedingly well in securing class certification rulings in federal courts in 2018 (over comparative figures for 2017). Class actions were certified in significantly higher numbers in “magnet” jurisdictions that continued to issue decisions that encourage – or, in effect, force – the resolution of large numbers of claims through class-wide mechanisms. Furthermore, the sheer volume of wage & hour certification decisions in 2018 increased as compared to last year, and plaintiffs fared better in litigating those class certification motions in federal court than in the prior year. Of the 273 wage & hour certification decisions in 2018, plaintiffs won 196 of 248 conditional certification rulings (approximately 79%), and lost only 13 of 25 decertification rulings (approximately 52%). By comparison, there were 257 wage & hour certification decisions in 2017, where plaintiffs won 170 of 233 conditional certification rulings (approximately 73%) and lost 15 of 24 decertification rulings (approximately 63%). In sum, employers lost more first stage conditional certification motions in 2018, and saw a reduction of their odds – a decrease of 11% – of fracturing cases with successful decertification motions.

Third, filings and settlements of government enforcement litigation in 2018 did not reflect a head-snapping pivot from the ideological pro-worker outlook of the Obama Administration to a pro-business, less regulation/litigation viewpoint of the Trump Administration. Instead, as compared to 2016 (the last year of the Obama Administration), government enforcement litigation actually increased in 2018. As an example, the EEOC alone brought 199 lawsuits in 2018 as compared to 184 lawsuits in 2017 and 86 lawsuits in 2016. However, the settlement value of the top ten settlements in government enforcement cases decreased dramatically – from $485.25 million in 2017 to $126.7 million in 2018. The explanations for this phenomenon are varied, and include the time-lag between Obama-appointed enforcement personnel vacating their offices and Trump-appointed personnel taking charge of agency decision-making power; the number of lawsuits “in the pipeline” that were filed during the Obama Administration that came to conclusion in the past year; and the “hold-over” effect whereby Obama-appointed policy-makers remained in their positions long enough to continue their enforcement efforts before being replaced in the last half of 2018. This is especially true at the EEOC, where the Trump nominations for the Commission’s Chair, two Commissioners, and its general counsel were stalled in the Senate waiting for votes of approval (or rejection), and one of the two nominees withdrew at year-end due to the delay. These factors are critical to employers, as both the DOL and the EEOC have had a focus on “big impact” lawsuits against companies and “lead by example” in terms of areas that the private plaintiffs’ bar aims to pursue. As 2019 opens, it appears that the content and scope of enforcement litigation undertaken by the DOL and the EEOC in the Trump Administration will continue to tilt away from the pro-employee/anti-big business mindset of the previous Administration. Trump appointees at the EEOC and the DOL are slowly but surely “peeling back” on positions previously advocated under the Obama Administration. As a result, it appears inevitable that the volume of government enforcement litigation and value of settlement numbers from those cases will decrease in 2019.

Fourth, the monetary value of the top workplace class action settlements decreased dramatically in 2018. These settlement numbers had been increasing on an annual basis over the past decade, and reached all-time highs in 2017. While the plaintiffs’ employment class action bar and governmental enforcement litigators were exceedingly successful in monetizing their case filings into large class-wide settlements this past year, they did so at decidedly lower values in 2018 than in previous years. The top ten settlements in various employment-related class action categories totaled $1.32 billion in 2018, a decrease of over $1.4 billion from $2.72 billion in 2017 and a decrease of $430 million from $1.75 billion in 2016. Furthermore, settlements of wage & hour class actions experienced over a 50% decrease in value (from $525 million in 2017 down to $253 million in 2018); ERISA class actions saw nearly a three-fold decrease (from $927 million in 2017 down to $313.4 million in 2018); and government enforcement litigation registered nearly a fourfold decrease (from $485.2 million in 2017 down to $126.7 million in 2018). Whether this is the beginning of a long-range trend or a short-term aberration remains to be seen as 2019 unfolds.

Fifth, as it continues to gain momentum on a worldwide basis, the #MeToo movement is fueling employment litigation issues in general and workplace class action litigation in particular. On account of new reports and social media, it has raised the level of awareness of workplace rights and emboldened many to utilize the judicial system to vindicate those rights. Several large sex harassment class-based settlements were effectuated in 2018 that stemmed at least in part from #MeToo initiatives. Likewise, the EEOC’s enforcement litigation activity in 2018 focused on the filing of #MeToo lawsuits while riding the wave of social media attention to such workplace issues; in fact, fully 74% of the EEOC’s Title VII filings this past year targeted sex-based discrimination (compared to 2017, where sex based-discrimination claims accounted for 65% of Title VII filings). Of the EEOC’s 2018 sex discrimination lawsuit filings, 41 filings included claims of sexual harassment. The total number of sexual harassment filings increased notably as compared to 2017, where sexual harassment claims accounted for 33 filings. Employers can expect more of the same in the coming year.

Implications For Employers

The one constant in workplace class action litigation is change. More than any other year in recent memory, 2018 was a year of great change in the landscape of Rule 23. As these issues play out in 2019, additional chapters in the class action playbook will be written.

The lesson to draw from 2018 is that the private plaintiffs’ bar and government enforcement attorneys at the state level are apt to be equally, if not more, aggressive in 2019 in bringing class action and collective action litigation against employers.

These novel challenges demand a shift of thinking in the way companies formulate their strategies. As class actions and collective actions are a pervasive aspect of litigation in Corporate America, defending and defeating this type of litigation is a top priority for corporate counsel. Identifying, addressing, and remediating class action vulnerabilities, therefore, deserves a place at the top of corporate counsel’s priorities list for 2019.

Seyfarth Synopsis: In its recent article on leading content creators in the legal industry, Attorney at Work cited Seyfarth’s Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report, calling it a “best-in-show report that makes the firm synonymous with class action litigation.”

Attorney at Work, a popular legal blog named in the ABA Journal’s “Blawg 100 Hall of Fame,” provides commentary with the “inspiration and information” necessary to support outstanding leading work. In a recent article highlighting industry leaders in legal content creation, Attorney at Work said:

“Seyfarth Shaw’s annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report, now in its 14th year, is a best-in-show report that makes the firm synonymous with class action litigation. At 800 pages, it is a giant publication and is consistently referred to as the source for countless media stories. Not coincidently, this year Seyfarth Shaw was again named a Law360 top employment ‘Practice Group of the Year.’ It has won the accolade for seven consecutive years.”

We are humbled and honored by Attorney at Work’s commentary on our Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report. The full article can be found HERE.

The process to compile our Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report is a considerable undertaking, and we are grateful that the Report can be seen as a model in the legal industry.

We are particularly proud of Attorney at Work’s words regarding the Report’s reflection on Seyfarth Shaw. After all, our class action practitioners work relentlessly to track, collect, and analyze each and every ruling on class action issues and Rule 23 topics.

Through publishing the Report for 14 years, we have found that the process results in not only a unique compendium of class action decisions, but also in a distinct analytical ability among our team of attorneys. We are pleased that this knowledge is useful to employers and class action practitioners throughout the country.

Many thanks to Attorney at Work — we sincerely appreciate the kudos.

Now that we are getting closer to year’s end, we have tracked and analyzed over 1,500 rulings. At this pace, we predict that the 2019 Report will be our most comprehensive publication to date. Stay tuned for our full analysis of the year’s workplace class action activity in January of 2019.

We are humbled and honored by the recent review of our 2018 Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report by Employment Practices Liability Consultant Magazine (“EPLiC”) – the review is here.

EPLiC said: “The Report is a must-have resource for legal research and in-depth analysis of employment-related class action litigation. Anyone who practices in this area, whether as a corporate counsel, a private attorney, a business execu­tive, a risk manager, an underwriter, a consul­tant, or a broker, cannot afford to be without it. Importantly, the Report is the only publica­tion of its kind in the United States. It is the sole compendium that analyzes workplace class actions from ‘A to Z.’”

We are often asked – “How does it happen – how do you produce your Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report”?

The answer is pretty simple – we live, eat, and breathe workplace class action law 24/7.

Each and every morning we check the previous day’s filings of EEOC lawsuits and workplace class actions relative to employment discrimination, ERISA, and wage & hour claims. We do so on a national basis, both in federal courts and all 50 states. Then we check, log, and analyze every ruling on Rule 23 certification motions and subsidiary issues throughout federal and state trial and appellate courts. This is also done on a national basis. We put this information in our customized database; we analyze and compare the rulings on class action issues and Rule 23 topics, and then we prepare an analysis of each and every decision.

Our class action practitioners – a group of over 175 Seyfarth lawyers – contribute to the process of building the database and analyzing decisional law on a daily basis.

We have been doing this on a 24/7 basis for over 14 years, and publishing the Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report in the first week of January of each calendar year.

The result is a compendium of workplace class action law that is unique in its analysis, scope, and comprehensiveness.

We are particularly proud that EPLiC recognized our Report as the “state-of-the-art report” on workplace class action litigation.

Thanks EPLiC. We sincerely appreciate the kudos.

Now, even less than half way through the year, we have tracked and analyzed more class action decisions to this point in 2018 than at the halfway point in past years. On this pace, our 2019 Report will cover more decisions than ever before.

Click here to access the microsite featuring all the Report highlights. You can read about the four major trends of the past year, order your copy of the eBook, and download Chapters 1 and 2 on the 2018 Executive Summary and key class action settlements.

The Report was featured today in an exclusive article in the Wall Street Journal. Click here to read the coverage!

The Report is the sole compendium in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to workplace class action litigation, and has become the “go to” research and resource guide for businesses and their corporate counsel facing complex litigation. We were again honored this year with a review of our Report by Employment Practices Liability Consultant Magazine (“EPLiC”). Here is what EPLiC said: “The Report is a definitive ‘must-have’ for legal research and in-depth analysis of employment-related class action litigation. Anyone who practices in this area, whether as an attorney, a business executive, a risk manager, an underwriter, a consultant, or a broker cannot afford to be without it. Importantly, the Report is the only publication of its kind in the United States. It is the sole compendium that analyzes workplace class actions from ‘A to Z.’” Furthermore, EPLiC recognized our Report as the “state-of-the-art word” on workplace class action litigation. You can read more about the review here.

The 2018 Report analyzes rulings from all state and federal courts – including private plaintiff class actions and collective actions, and government enforcement actions – in the substantive areas of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, and the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005. It also features chapters on EEOC pattern or practice rulings, state law class certification decisions, and non-workplace class action rulings that impact employers. The Report also analyzes the leading class action settlements for 2017 for employment discrimination, wage & hour, ERISA class actions, and statutory workplace laws, as well as settlements of government enforcement actions, both with respect to monetary values and injunctive relief provisions.

We hope our loyal blog readers will enjoy it!

Executive Summary

The prosecution of workplace class action litigation by the plaintiffs’ bar has increased exponentially over the past decade. More often than not, class actions pose unique “bet-the-company” risks for employers. An adverse judgment in a class action has the potential to bankrupt a business and adverse publicity can eviscerate its market share. Likewise, the on-going defense of a class action can drain corporate resources long before the case even reaches a decision point.

Companies that do business in multiple states are also susceptible to “copy-cat” class actions, whereby plaintiffs’ lawyers create a domino effect of litigation filings that challenge corporate policies and practices in numerous jurisdictions at the same time. Hence, workplace class actions can adversely impact a corporation’s business operations, jeopardize or cut short the careers of senior management, and cost millions of dollars to defend. For these reasons, risks from workplace class actions are at the top of the list of challenges that keep business leaders up late at night.

Skilled plaintiffs’ class action lawyers and governmental enforcement litigators are not making this challenge any easier for companies. They are continuing to develop new theories and approaches to the successful prosecution of complex employment litigation. New rulings by federal and state courts have added to this patchwork quilt of compliance problems and risk management issues.

In turn, the events of the past year in the workplace class action world demonstrate that the array of litigation issues facing businesses are continuing to accelerate at a rapid pace while also undergoing significant change. Notwithstanding the transition to new leadership in the White House in 2017, governmental enforcement litigation pursued by the EEOC and the U.S. Department of Labor (“DOL”) continued to manifest an aggressive “push-the-envelope” agenda by agencies, with regulatory oversight of workplace issues continuing as a high priority.

The combination of these factors are challenging businesses to integrate their litigation and risk mitigation strategies to navigate these exposures. These challenges are especially acute for businesses in the context of complex workplace litigation.

Adding to this mosaic of challenges in 2018 is the continuing evolution in federal policies based on a new political party occupying the White House for part of 2017. Furthermore, while changes to government priorities started on Inauguration Day and are on-going, others are being carried out by new leadership at the agency level who were appointed in the fourth quarter of this past year. As expected, many changes represent stark reversals in policy that are sure to have a cascading impact on private class action litigation. While predictions about the future of workplace class action litigation may cover a wide array of potential outcomes, the one sure bet is that change is inevitable and corporate America will continue to face new litigation challenges.

First, the monetary value of the top workplace class action settlements rose dramatically in 2017. These numbers increased over past years, even after they had reached all-time highs in 2014 to 2016. The plaintiffs’ employment class action bar and governmental enforcement litigators were exceedingly successful in monetizing their case filings into large class-wide settlements, and they did so at decidedly higher values than in previous years. The top ten settlements in various employment-related class action categories totaled $2.72 billion in 2017, an increase of over $970 million from $1.75 billion in 2016. Furthermore, settlements of employment discrimination class actions experienced over a three-fold increase in value; statutory workplace class actions saw nearly a five-fold increase; and government enforcement litigation registered nearly a ten-fold increase. Whether this is the beginning of a long-range trend or a short-term aberration remains to be seen as 2018 unfolds, but the determinative markers suggest this upward trend will rise further in 2018, at least insofar as private plaintiff class actions are concerned.

Second, while federal and state courts issued many favorable class certification rulings for the plaintiffs’ bar in 2017, evolving case law precedents and new defense approaches resulted in better outcomes for employers in opposing class certification requests. Plaintiffs’ lawyers continued to craft refined class certification theories to counter the more stringent Rule 23 certification requirements established in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, 564 U.S. 338 (2011). As a result, in the areas of employment discrimination and ERISA class actions, the plaintiffs’ bar scored well in securing class certification rulings in federal courts in 2017 (over comparative figures for 2016). Class actions were certified in significant numbers in “magnet” jurisdictions that continued to issue decisions that encourage – or, in effect, force – the resolution of large numbers of claims through class-wide mechanisms. Yet, while the sheer volume of wage & hour certification decisions in 2017 increased as compared to last year, employers actually fared better in litigating those class certification motions in federal court than last year. Of the 257 wage & hour certification decisions in 2017, plaintiffs won 170 of 233 conditional certification rulings (approximately 73%), but lost 15 of 24 decertification rulings (approximately 63%). By way of comparison, there were 224 wage & hour certification decisions in 2016, where plaintiffs won 147 of 195 conditional certification rulings (approximately 76%) and lost 13 of 29 decertification rulings (approximately 45%). In sum, employers beat slightly more first stage conditional certification motions in 2017, and dramatically increased their odds – a jump of 18% – of fracturing cases with successful decertification motions.

Third, filings and settlements of government enforcement litigation in 2017 did not reflect a head-snapping pivot from the ideological pro-worker (or anti-big business) outlook of the Obama Administration to a pro-business, less regulation/litigation viewpoint of the Trump Administration. Instead, as compared to 2016, government enforcement litigation actually increased in 2017. As an example, the EEOC alone brought 184 lawsuits in 2017 as compared to 86 lawsuits in 2016. Further, the settlement value of the top ten settlements in government enforcement cases jumped dramatically – from $52.3 million in 2016 to $485.25 million in 2017. The explanations for this phenomenon are wide and varied, and include the time-lag between Obama-appointed enforcement personnel vacating their offices and Trump-appointed personnel taking charge of agency decision-making power; the number of lawsuits “in the pipeline” that were filed during the Obama Administration that came to conclusion in the past year; and the “hold-over” effect whereby Obama-appointed policy-makers remained in their positions long enough to continue their enforcement efforts before being replaced in the last half of 2017. This trend is critical to employers, as both the DOL and the EEOC have had a focus on “big impact” lawsuits against companies and “lead by example” in terms of areas that the private plaintiffs’ bar aims to pursue. As 2018 opens, it appears that the content and scope of enforcement litigation undertaken by the DOL and the EEOC in the Trump Administration will tilt away from the pro-employee/anti-big business mindset of the previous Administration. Trump appointees at the DOL and the EEOC are slowly but surely “peeling back” on positions previously advocated under the Obama Administration. As a result, it appears inevitable that the volume of government enforcement litigation and value of settlement numbers from those cases will decrease in 2018. The ultimate effect, however, may well prompt the private plaintiffs’ class action bar to “fill the void” and expand the volume of workplace litigation pursued against employers over the coming year as the DOL and the EEOC adjust their litigation enforcement activities.

Fourth and finally, class action litigation increasingly has been shaped and influenced by recent rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court. Over the past several years, the U.S. Supreme Court has accepted more cases for review – and issued more rulings – that have impacted the prosecution and defense of class actions and government enforcement litigation. The past year continued that trend, with several key decisions on complex employment litigation and class action issues that were arguably more pro-business than decisions in past years. More cases also were accepted for review in 2017 that are positioned for rulings in 2018, including what may be the most high-stakes issue impacting employers since the Wal-Mart ruling in 2011 – the Epic Systems, Murphy Oil, and E & Y trilogy of cases on the legality of workplace arbitration agreements with class action waivers. The ruling expected in the Epic System, Murphy Oil, and E & Y cases in 2018 may well change the class action playing field in profound ways. Coupled with the appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch in 2017 and potential additional appointments to the Supreme Court by President Trump in 2018 and beyond, litigation dynamics may well be re-shaped in ways that further change the playbook for prosecuting and defending class actions.

Implications For Employers

The one constant in workplace class action litigation is change. More than any other year in recent memory, 2017 was a year of great change in the landscape of Rule 23. As these issues play out in 2018, additional chapters in the class action playbook will be written.

The lesson to draw from 2017 is that the private plaintiffs’ bar and government enforcement attorneys at the state level are apt to be equally, if not more, aggressive in 2018 in bringing class action and collective action litigation against employers.

These novel challenges demand a shift of thinking in the way companies formulate their strategies. As class actions and collective actions are a pervasive aspect of litigation in Corporate America, defending and defeating this type of litigation is a top priority for corporate counsel. Identifying, addressing, and remediating class action vulnerabilities, therefore, deserves a place at the top of corporate counsel’s priorities list for 2018.

Voting is open for the American Bar Association’s annual 100 Best Legal Blogs competition, and we hope you will cast your vote today to help Seyfarth’s Workplace Class Action blog get on the ABA’s list for 2017.

As many of you may know, the Workplace Class Action blog was selected as one 2016’s ABA Journal Best 100 Legal Blogs! The ABA Journal said the following: “This Seyfarth Shaw blog is worth reading for any employer-side labor law attorneys or in-house counsel. In addition to giving readers summaries of the outcomes of various lawsuits, the blog publishes Seyfarth’s Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report, which compiles vital information for corporate counsel about what companies can and should be doing to stay ahead of lawsuits.”

We were also honored this year again with a review of our Annual Workplace Class Action Report by Employment Practices Liability Consultant Magazine (“EPLiC”) – the review is here.

EPLiC said: “The Report is a definitive ‘must-have’ for legal research and in-depth analysis of employment-related class action litigation. Anyone who practices in this area, whether as an attorney, a business executive, a risk manager, an underwriter, a consultant, or a broker cannot afford to be without it. Importantly, the Report is the only publication of its kind in the United States. It is the sole compendium that analyzes workplace class actions from ‘A to Z.’”

Please help us gain some extra recognition by nominating us for the ABA’s annual 100 best legal blogs competition today! We want to keep the streak going for 2017!

Nominations are open now untill July 30, 2017.

Click the link here and provide a short explanation of why you like this blog.

Hurry over to the site and nominate! Thank you for your consideration and support!

Seyfarth Synopsis: In its recent review of Seyfarth’s 2017 Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report, EPLiC called it the “must have” resource that corporate counsel “cannot afford to be without it…”

We are humbled and honored by the recent review of our 2017 Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report by Employment Practices Liability Consultant Magazine (“EPLiC”) – the review is here.

EPLiC said: “The Report is a definitive ‘must-have’ for legal research and in-depth analysis of employment-related class action litigation. Anyone who practices in this area, whether as an attorney, a business executive, a risk manager, an underwriter, a consultant, or a broker cannot afford to be without it. Importantly, the Report is the only publication of its kind in the United States. It is the sole compendium that analyzes workplace class actions from ‘A to Z.’”

We are often asked – “How does it happen – how do you produce your Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report”?

The answer is pretty simple – we live, eat, and breathe workplace class action law 24/7.

Each and every morning we check the previous day’s filings of EEOC lawsuits and workplace class actions relative to employment discrimination, ERISA, and wage & hour claims. We do so on a national basis, both in federal courts and all 50 states. Then we check, log, and analyze every ruling on Rule 23 certification motions and subsidiary issues throughout federal and state trial and appellate courts. This is also done on a national basis. We put this information in our customized database; we analyze and compare the rulings on class action issues and Rule 23 topics, and then we prepare an analysis of each and every decision.

Our class action practitioners – a group of over 175 Seyfarth lawyers – contribute to the process of building the database and analyzing decisional law on a daily basis.

We have being doing this on a 24/7 basis for over 13 years, and publishing the Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report in the first week of January of each calendar year.

The result is a compendium of workplace class action law that is unique in its analysis, scope, and comprehensiveness.

We are particularly proud that EPLiC recognized our Report as the “state-of-the-art report” on workplace class action litigation.

Thanks EPLiC. We sincerely appreciate the kudos.

Now, even less than half way through the year, we have tracked and analyzed more class action decisions to this point in 2017 than at the halfway point in past years. On this pace, our 2018 Report will cover more decisions than ever before.

Back by popular demand, our Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report Webinar is on Tuesday, February 21, 2017. Click here to register and attend. It’s free!

As we face a new year, Seyfarth is pleased to offer strategic guidance through our 13th Annual Workplace Class Action Litigation Report. Across all varieties of workplace litigation, class action dynamics increasingly have been shaped and influenced by recent rulings in the U.S. Supreme Court. This past year the Supreme Court issued several key decisions on complex employment litigation issues and accepted more cases for review that are posed for rulings this coming year. Some decisions may be viewed as hostile to the expansive use of Rule 23, while others are hospitable and strengthen the availability of class actions against employers.

For an interactive analysis of 2016 decisions and emerging trends, please join us for our annual webinar. The Report’s author, Gerald L. Maatman, Jr., along with Lorie Almon, chair of our wage & hour group, and Ian Morrison, co-chair of our ERISA class action group, will cover a changed national landscape in workplace class action litigation. In our workplace class action webinar, highlights from the Report will outline a number of key trends for employers in 2017, including:

The implications and fall-out from the Supreme Court’s key decisions on complex employment litigation and class action issues of 2016, and discussion of the cases accepted for review that are posed for rulings in 2017.

Lessons to be learned from the monetary value of the top employment-related class action settlements and why they declined significantly in 2016 after they reached all-time highs in 2014 and 2015.

The background on why more favorable class certification rulings for the plaintiffs’ bar were issued in 2016 than in past years.

How the private plaintiffs’ bar is likely to “fill the void” after the Trump inauguration and increase the number of wage & hour lawsuit filings in 2017, following case filing statistics reflecting that wage & hour litigation filings decreased over the past year for the first time in a decade.

Why there were more conditional certification and decertification decisions in the wage & hour space than in any other area of workplace class action litigation.

The dynamics behind the U.S. Department of Labor and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s continued aggressive litigation approaches in 2016 and what is in store for government enforcement litigation under the Trump Administration.

Seyfarth Synopsis: The increasingly common practice of third-party funding of class actions, which provides tax incentives to plaintiffs’ attorneys and third-party funders alike, may no longer be protected under confidentiality agreements. Finding a class action funding agreement to be relevant in determining the adequacy of class counsel, a court in California granted a defendant’s motion to compel the plaintiff to produce the litigation funding agreement and reveal the identity of the third-party funder. This ruling is key for all employers facing class action litigation.

A recent trend has emerged in the class action landscape whereby a third-party funder pays the owner of a civil claim an up-front monetary payment in return for the claim owner’s promise to convey a portion of the potential recovery. Class action plaintiffs’ attorneys and third-party funders are incentivized under this approach through tax advantages, whereby the attorneys can defer tax liability on the monetary advancement until the claim pays off while the funders can deduct their expenses and pay tax on any profit at the lower capital-gains rate. Predictably, many of the third-party funders enter into such agreements with plaintiffs’ attorneys confidentially for varying business or personal reasons.

In a novel decision that will profoundly impact the practice of third-party funding of class actions, Judge Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recently granted defendant’s (“Chevron”) motion to compel plaintiff to reveal the identity of who was funding its proposed class action regarding a gas explosion off the coast of Nigeria in Gbarabe v. Chevron Corp., No. 14-CV-173 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 5, 2016). This ruling provides businesses facing class actions, including employers facing workplace class actions, a blueprint as to how to compel plaintiffs to identify stakeholders in class action lawsuits against their companies.

Case Background

Plaintiff, a Nigerian fisherman near the coastal waters of Bayelsa, Nigeria, brought a class action suit on January 13, 2014 for alleged losses to the classes’ livelihood and health problems. Id. at 2. After several rounds of motion practice and extensions, plaintiff moved for class certification on April 8, 2016.

To determine whether plaintiff’s counsel could adequately represent the proposed class of Nigerian fisherman and residents, Chevron requested that plaintiff be ordered to produce “documents reflecting or relating to the actual or potential financing or funding of the prosecution of this litigation” and to comply with Civil Local Rule 3-15. Id. Chevron argued that when the Court ruled on the upcoming class certification motion, it must examine the resources that plaintiff’s counsel will commit to representing the class, which was especially important in a case like this involving claims that are likely to be expensive to investigate, prepare for trial, and prosecute to verdict. Further, Chevron noted that plaintiff did not dispute that his counsel, a group of solo practitioners, were dependent on outside funding to prosecute the case.

After initially refusing to produce the requested documents, plaintiff produced a heavily redacted copy of a litigation funding agreement. Id. at 3. Chevron argued the redactions made it impossible for it to assess whether counsel could commit adequate resources to the class. While plaintiff conceded the relevance of the funding agreement to the class certification adequacy determination, and further did not assert that the agreement was privileged, plaintiff argued that he and “his counsel are under a contractual obligation to preserve the confidentiality of the funder’s identity, as well as the terms of the agreement, absent a Court order or a determination that it would be prudent to do so.” Id. Plaintiff thereafter proposed submitting an unredacted copy of the litigation funding agreement to the Court for in camera review, along with an executed declaration by the funder’s Chief Investment Officer which addresses each item identified by defendant in their motion. Id.

The Court’s Decision

The Court rejected plaintiff’s proposed approach and granted Chevron’s motion to compel production of the litigation funding agreement.

The Court noted that under the circumstances of the case, the litigation funding agreement was relevant to the adequacy determination and thus should be produced to defendant. Further, the Court noted that the confidentiality provision of the funding agreement did not prohibit plaintiff from producing the agreement. Id. Plaintiff’s proposal for in camera review of the agreement by the Court was found to be inadequate because it would deprive Chevron of the ability to make its own assessment and arguments regarding the funding agreement and its impact, if any, on plaintiff’s ability to adequately represent the class. Accordingly, the Court ordered plaintiff to produce the litigation funding agreement to Chevron along with any other documents that were responsive to Chevron’s document request. Id. at 4.

Implications For Employers

A business confronted with class action litigation absolutely would want to know if someone other than the plaintiffs themselves have a financial interest in a “bet-the-company” case. The ruling in Gbarabe arms employers with a potential strategy to unmask third-party funders that may have an interest in seeing their financial demise as a class action defendant. Given that this ruling stemmed from internationally-based class action litigation involving solo practitioners, businesses should be cautioned that courts may not always find litigation funding agreements to be relevant in determining the adequacy of plaintiffs’ counsel. Nonetheless, the arguments presented by Chevron are instructive in showing class action defendants how they can attempt to figure out who is bankrolling litigation battles against them. Finally, this ruling should serve as a cautionary tale to those third-party funders who desire anonymity, and ideally result in a chilling effect of this practice that amounts to tax-incentivized gambling on class action litigation. Workplace class actions can expect to see similar challenges to the adequacy of class counsel with motions to compel the production of litigation funding agreements in the very near future.

About Seyfarth's complex Workplace Litigation Team

The Seyfarth Workplace Class Action Blog is a one-of-a-kind resource for corporate employers, HR professionals, C-suite executives, and corporate counsel facing the complex world of high-stakes workplace litigation. It is the daily platform from Seyfarth’s Annual Workplace Class Action Report, the sole compendium in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to complex workplace litigation. Since we began publishing this annual report seven years ago, both the number of cases filed and the financial exposure that they pose to companies has increased exponentially. As plaintiffs’ attorneys bring increasingly sophisticated litigation against employers that combine claims under multiple statutes, the financial exposure has become greater for businesses. Seyfarth’s Workplace Class Action Litigation Report has become the trusted “go-to” reference guide to explain the latest trends in complex employment litigation. Given the enormous financial stakes, pro-active planning and legal compliance programs — to get ahead of these litigation risks — are critically important for businesses. Our Blog is designed to keep Corporate America informed of the latest trends and cutting-edge developments relative to the various forms of challenges employers face, including employment discrimination, ERISA, and wage & hour class actions, governmental enforcement lawsuits brought by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and other complex employment-related litigation.